‘Country cannot be anchored by old courts sentences”: Abela
Prime Minister Robert Abela has once again called on the courts to be 'on the side of society' and to review sentencing policies without being bound to decades old decisions. Speaking in Birkirkara on Sunday he accused the opposition of a conflict of interest, saying he was being criticised for calling for harsher court sentences by the same people who worked as lawyers and every morning went to court to plead for shorter sentences for their clients. Abela originally called for a review of sentencing policies and tougher punishments last week in the wake of the murder of a Turkish woman in Gzira and the unprovoked attack on a group of four boys by a gang of youths in Valletta. “Our courts need to send a clear message that they are in favour of society, and are in favour of maintaining law and order in our country,” he said. He said that over the past few days he met a magistrate who told him that whenever a tough punishment was handed down, the sentence was inevitably watered down on appeal, with the appeals court citing caselaw. The courts, Abela said, should no longer be anchored by decisions which went back decades. He said that like all parents, he had been worried...